And we call this dinner

In our house this is a great dinner. I have just harvested some lovely beetroot from my vege garden, to make way for more plantings. All scrubbed up and peeled like this, they make such a lovely sight, almost art.



This is a lovely salad which I have adjusted from a Delicious recipe as I have tried to replicate a great salad served at one of my favourite child-friendly restaurants Mecca Bah (Docklands, Melbourne).



Served with some crusty bread and maybe sliced homegrown tomatoes and basil, my family happily calls this dinner. Oh, I love those salad munchers!

Beetroot Salad

3 Grated beetroots
2 Grated carrots
Tin chickpeas
Rocket or spinach leaves
Yoghurt
Toasted pepitas

Dressing
2 Lemons, juiced
2 tsp cumin
seasonings
1 tbsp olive oil

Add dressing to grated beets, carrots and chickpeas. Layer on top of rocket and top with yoghurt and seeds. Yum.

I sometimes leave out the chickpeas if serving with another salad.

How Does Your Garden Grow

Kate's party this year was a gardening party. It was a beautiful spring day, the best all year and we all had a ball.



Each child had a pot with potting mix and a set of gloves. We potted a mixture of flowers, vegetable and herbs in the pot. The balloons were arranged to look like flowers on a stem and each child put a 'flower' in their pot when we were finished.



Kate asked to invite her prep teacher who was so obliging as to actually come. I think that only a prep teacher would be invited to a child's birthday party...and only a prep teacher would have the dedication to turn up. Thanks Miss Kelly!

Note: I received a few questions about the invitations. The font I used was a free downloadable front from dafont. The cards were some sweet scalloped cards from our local $2 shop, such a great find. The flowers were cut out using my girlfriend's Cuttlebug machine - boy is that thing addictive! The boys stamps were also hers which she bought from Stampin' Up.

Self-suffiency

Edward and I enjoyed our little adventure very much!

It was special for him to meet his great-grandparents who live in the Blue Mountains and he loved their attention.





We also visited my uncle (who is only a few years older than me and more like a cousin) and his wife (who was one of my best friends at uni). Yes, I can add match-maker to my title.

They have two gorgeous boys and live in a very isolated valley in the Blue Mountains. Their 100 acre property is almost totally surrounded by beautiful cliff faces.





Their lifestyle is one of almost total self-sufficiency; tank water, solar-power, they farm 36 cattle and so eat their own beef and chickens (the meat birds are bread just for their own eating). Rachel's vegetable gardens are almost the size of my backyard and they live almost totally off their produce. She has fruit trees, nut trees and berry bushes. She bottles the excess fruit and cooks up the tomatoes into relish, pasata and tomato sauce. Rachel grinds her own flour and of, course makes the bread. Mitchell(7), is home schooled and the youngest will follow when he is school age. It is truly amazing to behold. In her spare time Rachel build dry stone rock walls. These are all over their beautiful property and she has collected almost all of the rocks herself.

I wish I had of taken photos of her wonderful work. It was amazing to see it all and I came back feeling very energised. Ready for a very busy five weeks ahead.

Neglected

Oh, poor blog. Poor, forgotten blog.

One month since I have last posted. Simply unbelievable really. It seems I took an unannounced blogging break. And what do I have to say for myself?

Well, we have been busy, but hey we're always busy? Aren't we all? I guess it started when I was feeling a little under the weather and had a few too many commitments to honour and then I just sort of lost touch. The longer I left it, the harder it was to make a post.

But, I am back. I don't have an awful lot to show. (I haven't even been taking many photos. Now that is saying something!) But I do have a few projects up my sleeve, and a few things to share. I just had to make the first move and get back on track.

Here is your one solitary picture. It is the last of my summer vegetable garden harvest. I took this photo a few weeks ago.



This year is the first time we have planted potatoes. Boy, are they delicious! If you have a deep, neglected part of your garden, I recommend them. When I dug up/picked/collected this beautiful lot of produce I really had such deep satisfaction. I mean, anyone can grow lettuce and tomatoes, but potatoes and eggs...that's real self sufficiency.


Back soon, I promise.